MONEY FROM IRAN SAID TO BUY ALARM FOR NORTH'S HOME

By FOXBUTTERFIELD, Special to the New York Times

Published: June 24, 1987

WASHINGTON, June 23—
Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North apparently wrote fake letters to make it appear he intended to pay for a home security system financed in part by proceeds from the Iran arms sales, the Congressional committees investigating the Iran-contra affair were told today.

Glenn A. Robinette, a retired Central Intelligence Agency officer, also told the committees that he had prepared false bills for the $13,900 security system to help hide the nature of the transactions.

The security system was actually paid for by Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, Mr. Robinette said. The money came from a bank account that included profits generated by the secret sale of United States arms to Iran, according to documents and testimony offered today. 'Was Purpose to Cover Up?'

In one of the crispest exchanges of the day, Senator George J. Mitchell, a Maine Democrat, asked Mr. Robinette, ''The purpose of those phony bills was to cover up what you were aware was at least wrong and possibly illegal?''

''That's correct, sir,'' Mr. Robinette responded. [ Excerpts, page A10. ] It was not explicitly demonstrated that Colonel North knew how the security system had been paid for. However, the false bills and Colonel North's attempt to prove that he intended to pay for the electronic system constituted the clearest indication yet that Colonel North was actively involved in trying to deceive investigators about how money from the Iran-contra affair went for personal use. Hearings in Second Stage

This afternoon, after a recess of about two weeks, the committees began a detailed examination of the arms sales to Iran, the subject of the second stage of the Congressional hearings, and heard testimony from two Defense Department officials involved in the transactions.

One official, Noel Koch (pronounced cook), coincidentally helped set up a legal defense fund this year for General Secord. Mr. Koch testified that the fund had recently received $500,000 from an anonymous donor through a Swiss bank account, prompting him to end his connection to the fund.

Colonel North has declined to comment on the testimony to date in the Iran-contra hearings, but under an understanding reached Monday between his lawyer and the Congressional committees it appears likely that he will testify before the committees early next month. 'A Sham Transaction'

Federal statutes make it illegal for a Government official to accept gifts related in any way to his job. Officials found guilty of that can be fined up to $10,000 and imprisoned up to two years. The gift giver is also liable for prosecution and imprisonment.

Senator Warren B. Rudman, a New Hampshire Republican and the vice chairman of the Senate committee looking into the Iran-contra affair, described the bills and letters for the North security system as ''a sham transaction that was cooked.''

Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah and the Reagan Administration's most fervent supporter on the joint committees, said to Mr. Robinette, ''I find it a little difficult to avoid the feeling of being let down because of what you've told me here today.'' Snow Tires and School Money

The testimony on the security system comes in the wake of testimony from other witnesses in the hearings that indicated Colonel North apparently benefited financially in other ways.

He received $90,000 in travelers' checks from a contra leader, Adolfo Calero, and spent some of the money for personal items including groceries and snow tires.

Albert Hakim, General Secord's business partner, testified that he set aside $200,000 from the proceeds of the arms sales supposedly for the education of Colonel North's children in case of his death, and he said Colonel North had to have known of that.

Mr. Robinette testified he had installed the security system and electronic gate at Colonel North's home outside Washington by July 1986 and had been paid by General Secord at that time. But in December 1986, after the Iran-contra affair became public knowledge, Colonel North unexpectedly called him on the phone, saying, ''By the way, you never sent me a bill,'' Mr. Robinette recalled. Backdated Letters Mr. Robinette, who spent 20 years in the technical services division of the C.I.A., which among other things specializes in forging documents, testified he had then prepared two bills - one dated July 2, 1986, and a second dated Sept. 22 - and mailed both of them in one envelope to Colonel North through Mr. North's attorney.

In two signed letters sent to Mr. Robinette last December, one of which was backdated to the time the gates were installed the previous summer and the other dated in the fall in supposed response to Mr. Robinette's fake second billing, Colonel North suggested he would pay for the equipment by making ''our home available for commercial endorsement of your firm.''

The letters were written in entirely different tones, one formal, the other personal. Several letters, including the ''E,'' appeared to have been deliberately damaged on the typewriter that was used to write the second note, evidently to increase the impression they were written at different times, investigators said.